Norway 2015 Rd5: Topalov is untouchable at 4.5/5

6/22/2015 – It is said that in order to win a tournament, one needs both good play and a bit of luck. Topalov, who has certainly been playing well, has been under the umbrella of a guardian angel so far, and after his miracle turnaround against Carlsen, was ready to shake hands today against Jon Hammer, when his opponent blundered the game away. He is now at 2816 in the Live Ratings. Round Five report.

Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. Start your personal success story with ChessBase 14 and enjoy your chess even more!

Along with the ChessBase 14 program you can access the Live Database of 8 million games, and receive three months of free ChesssBase Account Premium membership and all of our online apps! Have a look today!

The third edition of the Norway Chess tournament runs from June 15th to June 26th, and will mostly be played in Stavanger, Norway. As in previous years, the drawing of lots was determined by the blitz tournament taking place the day before the official start. Not only one of the strongest tournaments in the World, Norway 2015 is also part of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour, which includes the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic later this year.

Round 5 - 21.06.2015

Name

Rtg

Res.

Name

Rtg

Carlsen Magnus

2876

1-0

Grischuk Alexander

2781

Nakamura Hikaru

2802

½-½

Anand Viswanathan

2804

Vachier-Lagrave Maxime

2723

½-½

Giri Anish

2773

Aronian Levon

2780

1-0

Caruana Fabiano

2805

Hammer Jon Ludvig

2677

0-1

Topalov Veselin

2798

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 5

Carlsen, Magnus 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander
What a respite for the World Champion! A much needed win after the rest day, and the atrocious start that Carlsen had. He played a decent game, that as he mentioned got interest only after a certain point. Grischuk seemed to have a decent position, but his time pressure trouble, which was completely unnecessary, basically cost him the game:

And Norway breathes a sigh of relief! And yet, the two bottom spots are still Norwegian players...

WGM Jennifer Shahade was sick, and today WGM Tatev Abrahamyan brought insightful commentary to the coverage at grandchesstour.com. Meanwhile the dude on the right turned 27 today. Wish him happy birthday below!

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
Following a game between two non-elite grandmasters, Nakamura obtained a little bit of pressure in a symemtrical pawn structure out of this Nimzo-Indian. Anand's position was slightly unpleasant, but a mistake allowed his pieces, specifically his knights, to jump with incredibly momentum. Nakamura tanked, thinking about 30 minutes when he saw what he had done to his position. Wisely, he simplified into an easily drawn rook endgame.

Aronian, Levon 1-0 Caruana, Fabiano
Another suicidal mission from Caruana. He had been holding solidly in an unpleasant endgame with an isolated pawn, but in another fateful 40th move today, he lost the thread of the game...

Hammer, Jon Ludvig 0-1 Topalov, Veselin
The game that everyone is talking about. Topalov takes a commanding lead in the tournament by beating Jon Ludvig Hammer.. but the way that he got there is simply unbelievable.

Maurice Ashley loved White's position from the opening

Topalov's opening was more than dubious, allowing the Norwegian an impressive initiative. With excellent understanding, White sacrificed a piece to obtain a bind that disallowed Black's pieces from moving. However, he started messing up after that. His unnecessarily passive play gave Topalov all the room he needed to develop his pieces. Hammer obtained three pawns for the piece, but was holding the balance and nothing more.

Just when it seemed everything was over and Hammer earned his hard-fought draw, the following happened:

Hammer was simply disgusted with himself after blundering in such a basic position

With this Topalov has been gifted at least two games with Black (Carlsen forfeiting on time against him from a won position, and Hammer giving up a completely drawn position in one move), while his other Black win was against a very poor showing against MVL. The Bulgarian leads by a full point over Nakamura now, who has a very tough pairings tomorrow as the American is Black against Carlsen!

Alejandro RamirezGrandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

See also

1/5/2017 – In a recent press release the Grand Chess Tour announced two things: a new rating system, called Universal Rating System, or URS™, that combines the results players have in classical, rapid and blitz chess, and the Wildcard Selections for the five events of the Grand Chess Tour 2017. More...

See also

1/2/2017 – One player who did exceedingly well in 2016 is Wesley So. The 23-year-old won two super tournaments – the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic, he helped the US win team gold in the Chess Olympiad in Baku where So also won gold for the best performance on board three. So also won the Grand Chess Tour ahead of legends such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and others. We got in touch with Wesley So to talk about the London Chess Classic and the chess decisions in much greater detail.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

Discuss

Seriously?? I'm not a Carlsen fan, but that analogy is ridiculous. Topalov didn't grind Carlsen down from a better position. He was losing, then Magnus flagged because he didn't know the time control (which is ridiculous). By the way, if you watch the video, Topalov didn't even call the flag, the arbiter did (which is against the rules). It was a gift. Hammer had a dead draw in one move, but blundered instead and immediately had to resign. That is not in "good form", that's luck. He played well against Aronian, but literally half of his wins have been pure luck, not technique and not grinding. Topalov is a great player, truly, but he has not played better chess than Nakamura or Anand (or Giri). Look over the games and you'll see few "!" for Topalov.

Petrosianic 6/22/2015 11:01

"When one blunders or flags against Topalov, Anand and others it is pure luck!"
With this particular blunder, yeah.

If you don't believe it, ask Topalov himself. He says the move happened only because Hammer mistakenly thought he'd played Bb8 on the last move. You wouldn't call that lucky?

vodkarov 6/22/2015 09:08

It's an interesting logic. When one blunders against MC its due to his endgame "technique", or the opponnent was tired because of so many complications in endgame, and so on. When one blunders or flags against Topalov, Anand and others it is pure luck!

Truthbe 6/22/2015 09:04

What's up with Topalov? He got a full point when Kramnik protested and gave up a game.
One more when Carlsen lost for not knowing a time control rule. And, now Hammer Ludwig strangely plays a terrible move, which even a 2000 rated player would not play, and loses to Topolov! Which mind controller did Topolov employ to disorient his opponents?

Omoplata 6/22/2015 09:01

Topalov isn't lucky. You can't win consistently against players in the top 10 out of luck. He's in good form just like when he wiped the floor with everyone in San Luis in 2005, and just like Caruana was in good form (and not 'lucky') in St Louis with his 7 out of 7.

mickey cruise 6/22/2015 06:50

WGM Jennifer Shahade gifted the new team of commentators an opportunity to shine, and they did shine. They seem interested in they're role as commentators where some others are not. I hope to see the new team commenting in the future.

firestorm 6/22/2015 03:17

Norway 2015 Rd5: Topalov is untouchable at 4.5/5
by Alejandro Ramirez

6/22/2015 – It is said that in order to win a tournament, one needs both good play and a bit of luck. Topalov, who has certainly been playing well ...

That's the title and opening lines of this news report.

With criticism like that, who needs praise?

sexaybachay@gmail.com 6/22/2015 02:44

This kind of one-move losing blunders happen in all super tournaments and most of the are in games against Carlsen simply due to exhaustion. No one gives all the credit to luck there. Also bring back Jennifer.

Wallace Howard 6/22/2015 12:04

Topalov is on track to win the luckiest Super GM tournament I've ever seen. He's been gifted 2 full points in 5 rounds. Hopefully Grischuk can beat him tomorrow, just to even it out a bit.

sharpnova 6/22/2015 11:59

@psamant - Yes Chessbase frequently acts childish. But I didn't see any "grudge" displayed against Topalov in this article.

@royc - Childish comment. Borrowed time and luck about to change are completely meaningless. Stop trying to empower yourself, girl.

river77 6/22/2015 10:01

Topalov is Keyser Soze!

daftarche 6/22/2015 09:35

i think some of your commentaries on the games are not correct or some important moments left unnoticed today. happy birthday!

psamant 6/22/2015 08:35

Happy birthday Alejandro!
I understand that toiletgate made Topalov a monster. That was truly a horrendous episode in chess history. But, to a lay reader, it feels that Chessbase has carried a grudge against him for far too long. Topalov has played well; you do not reach such a position and get invited to these tournaments otherwise. Your constant nitpicking manner of reporting showing Topalov in a bad light ends up getting him sympathy and lessening the wrong that he has done to Kramnik and to chess in general. Anyway, chess reporting can do with chessbase leading the way with unbiased reporting, even if Topalov is a beneficiary of the reports!

royc 6/22/2015 06:20

I think Magnus is a great champions but in his homeland of Norway, he lacks the Almighty favour. Still nursing his 3 defeats, a gladiator in Nakamura is the last thing Magnus needs tomorrow.

Topalov is still in borrowed time ... but his luck is about to change.

What's happening to Fabiano?! He has difficulty shying away from erroneous end games in otherwise drawn positions

NMcrazyim5 6/22/2015 06:12

Thanks for the articles. Happy birthday Alejandro!

superstoned 6/22/2015 05:48

Hey man, I finally registered just to wish you a happy birthday!! I'm a big fan of your YouTube videos and your chessbase analyses, both of which are free.

Thanks Alejandro and again, Happy Birthday!

bronkenstein 6/22/2015 02:56

Topalov is, it seems, "going Caruana" :)

On incoming Carlsen-Naka, Magnus is stabilizing after the rest day and today`s victory, also he is white. I`d say a draw would be an achievement for Nakamura, as it always is with Sauron.

DJones 6/22/2015 02:19

He has the black pieces. Carlsen has been dominating his white games. A draw is fine. Asking a GM to force a WIN with black is asking them to lose.

stephen brady 6/22/2015 02:16

Carlsen Nakamura tomorrow. If Naka can't break Carlsen while he's down, he may never be able to. Come on Naka!

DBRussell 6/22/2015 01:36

Caruana loses his second game. He only needs one more to catch Carlsen! :D

Carlsen - Nakamura now, can't wait!
Since Magnus has no chance to win this anymore he can atleast ruin it for Naka.

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.